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Everyone knows exercise is an important part of a healthy lifestyle, but can you have too much of a good thing? “It’s definitely possible to go about exercise in the wrong way where it can hurt you,” said Christopher Wahl, MD, chief of sports medicine at the University of California, San Diego department of orthopedic surgery.

Whether you’re a triathlete accustomed to high-intensity training, a young ballplayer trying to perfect your pitch, or a runner preparing for your first marathon, there are important things to keep in mind to avoid injuries from overtraining or overuse of specific muscles.

“We’ve become a society that gets easily obsessed with things,” said Dr. Wahl. “People will decide one day they’re going to be runners, and suddenly that’s all they do. There’s not any cross-training or exercising other muscle groups.”

High-intensity runners or triathletes, for instance, suffer injuries because of the large amount of stress placed on leg joints, muscles, and tendons. Activities that require frequent bending of the knees — such as jogging and biking — can irritate tendons or nerves around the kneecap and cause painful “runner’s knee.” Running shoes that don’t provide adequate support and cushioning against hard surfaces can cause shin splints, an inflammation of muscles in the front of the lower leg.

Even seasoned marathon runners and pro-level athletes can develop stress fractures, an overuse injury that occurs when a fatigued muscle transfers an overload of stress to the bone. These tiny cracks typically occur in the lower leg bones, the tibia and fibula, or the smaller bones of the foot. They can be extremely painful, even when the slightest pressure is applied.

Fractures are common in people who ramp up their training intensity quickly without allowing the body to adjust, said Tabatha Elliott, PhD, a clinical research coordinator at the Exercise-Wellness Center at Shriner’s Hospital for Children in Galveston, Texas.

“Failing to stretch and warm up the muscles prior to vigorous exercise is a leading cause of injury,” said Elliott. “Using incorrect techniques often results in exercise related injury as well [such as] choosing weights that are too heavy or improperly suited for a particular exercise.”

Overuse injuries are especially common among young athletes trying to excel at a particular sport or skill – things like elbow injuries in baseball players, knee tendonitis in soccer players, or Achilles tendonitis in basketball players.

“I think we’ve really done a disservice to kids in our approach to training them,” said Wahl. “Kids are introduced to organized sports so early that they don’t really know how to play freely. They’re given one sport to play before they’re 10, and parents think they’ll fall behind if they concentrate on anything else.”

Wahl has seen aspiring pitchers as young as 11 and 12 years old who need Tommy John surgery, a surgical graft procedure to repair an elbow ligament that becomes stretched from repetitive motion.

“Though some kids’ leagues have been good about implementing rules to prevent these injuries, I imagine it’ll be difficult to change the culture,” he said. “There’s a perceived competitive advantage for kids who are playing all the time, versus a kid who just pitches for a summer league.”

People who suffer from joint overuse injuries are also more likely to suffer from osteoarthritis later in life, according to the Arthritis Foundation.

Encourage kids to have at least one or two days off a week to recover from games, practice, and training.

Don’t increase training time, repetitions of exercises, or distance running by more than 10 percent each week.

Take at least two or three months off from a particular sport during the year.

Be on the lookout for any signs of fatigue, muscle or joint issues, or poor academic performance, which could be a sign of overtraining.

“We glorify every athlete who plays through the pain. But we need to teach kids to listen to their bodies if they’re sore and in pain, and tell they them shouldn’t try and train through that,” said Wahl. “They can still reach their goals, but in a way that the body can tolerate.”

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